


We can Blunder Through This

by StarkidDreamer



Series: Magnetic [2]
Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: CA: WS compliant, Darcy is having none of your shit, F/M, Thor 2 Compliant, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-25
Updated: 2015-01-17
Packaged: 2017-12-09 12:24:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/774156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarkidDreamer/pseuds/StarkidDreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint never expected to actually see Darcy again so, of course, she stumbles back into his life and he into hers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The next time Darcy meets with Clint is right after the Battle of Manhattan. Of course _he’d_ seen her from time to time, she just never knew. He would find himself watching her from the roof opposite the lab when he was on Jane Foster Duty. He had always preferred a birds eye view, pun intended, so the roof was his go to. He’d been watching them for a few weeks after Lewis was mugged to make sure everything was okay as their new Agent got set up. Everything went smoothly and he was sent somewhere where his skills would be utilized better.  Before he left he’d dropped off a box on her desk when everyone was asleep. He didn’t wait to see her open it and, he’d assumed, he probably wouldn’t see her again anyways.

He _was_ surprised to see her sitting in the medical bay at SHIELD headquarters after the battle. She looked no worse for the wear, more like she was being forced to be there. Of course he’d been in a situation similar as such on multiple occasions. Her hair was wildly disheveled and she had a bruise forming over her cheek. It was a particularly nasty one but it _would_ heal. She was wearing it too. The object he’d gently placed in a box those months ago when he snuck away. A replacement of her destroyed Ramones hoodie. It was covered in blood again. He watched her for a moment, baffled as to her presence. He’d assumed she’d been relocated with Doctor Foster.

She limped forward and started lecturing one of the people in the many beds that had been crammed into the small room. She turned then and spotted him, a Cheshire grin spreading across her face. A cut along her lip stretched and started bleeding again as she limped over to him, grin still wide. “Robin Hood!” she cheered and ran a hand through her hair. Bits of gravel and plaster dust cascaded down over her shoulders and he noticed a part of her hair had been cut, leaving the ends frayed and much shorter than the rest of it. Her hair had grown longer in the year since he’d last seen her, curling wildly at the bottom. This was all objective observation, of course. He told himself that anyways. He realized that she’d spoken and his brows furrowed.

“What are you doing here, Lewis?” he asked, voice going gruff for a moment before he reigned it back in. After all, civilians shouldn’t be down there to begin with. That, of course, is not why he was asking. He was more concerned about the blood spattered across her hoodie and the way she limped. He wouldn’t say he liked her, that wasn’t exactly it. He was curious about the Poli-Sci Major. Intrigued even. She rose a brow and crossed her arms over her chest then cocked her hip, completing what he would later learn to call the “Darcy Lewis Stare Down”. It was aptly named. Her blue eyes starred into his and he realized her glasses were gone.

“I work here?” she replied then paused. “Okay not _here_ here.” She gestured around to the med-bay. “I mean I work here.” Her hands spread out as if to encompass the entire building. She sighed at the look on his face. “What, did you think I’d be Jane’s lackey forever? I graduated a few months ago.” He’d made a note to look that up later and her shoulders slumped. Someone else was being rushed past them and he could see an almost defeat like look cross her face. She was not defeated though. She was anything but as she turned to face the incoming group. “You! There are too many people in here! Who said you could bring more here? Third floor!” it seemed as if she’d gone from Scientist Wrangler to agent Wrangler in that last year.

“Whose blood is that?” the words came out casually and her eyes shot down to her hoodie. She let out a creative string of expletives and peeled the sweater off expertly. She had on a white button down top on under it and, he just noticed, she had on a pencil skirt. Her SHIELD ID was clipped to the bottom of her shirt and she wore a vest over the white button down. It all looked very professional aside from the Chucks she wore and mismatched socks. It looked like she’d been getting ready for work when the attack hit and just kind of threw the rest on once she realized what had been happening. The thing that made him nervous was the shoulder strap guns hooked over both shoulders. One of the guns was missing and the other looked inoperable by how beat up it appeared.

As soon as she was done swearing her head bounced back up. She noted the starring but didn’t comment on it, simply moved past it and kept talking. “Well, it’s clearly not my own.” She grumbled and yanked her hair into a pony tail. She pulled her vest off and tossed it into the trash. It had been seeped with blood too. Her white shirt had only been speckled with the red droplets. There were also greenish colored droplets sprayed across the collar of the shirt and some on her cheek. “I had a rough commute.” She said with a smirk. He wanted to ask exactly how rough but she turned and started shouting at someone else.  She turned to him for another second and smiled. “Sorry Clint, I gotta go!” she wailed and was off like a bolt.

Clint watched her go then turned to get treated before heading back off again. He found that in the next few weeks there was hardly a moment of down time. He spent a lot of time in the part of SHIELD he hated the most. Meeting rooms. There was a lot of paper work to be done and he knew he wasn’t the only “Avenger” stuck doing the work. He’d spotted Nat nearly pulling her hair out at one of the back desks one night. Of course to anyone else she appeared to be perfectly fine, not a hair or nail out of place. He knew better judging by the way she was downing coffee and very nearly twitching.  Throughout the offices he would see her though. Darcy. She looked very professional as she worked.

She’d been forced to cut her hair after the battle, it seemed, because her hair was much shorter the next time he saw her. The cut on her lip was also stitched up. She’d probably ignored it until last possible moment and it ended up needing stitches. When he finally got a free moment he looked her up. He felt strange doing it but there was no reason not to. She had once been his Op after all. She’d graduated nearly top of her class from Culver earning her degree in the Political Science Law and Justice track. Afterwards she’d been snatched up by SHIELD. It made sense after all. Someone so involved in the whole New Mexico mess was likely to be snatched up quickly. Since she was qualified it made even more sense that they gave her a job and necessary training. He scanned through the information but avoided the family stuff, sticking to the professional at least a little. He stopped at a video feed from the battle and clicked it.

The screen lit up with a news report. The woman reporting was standing, hair whipping around her wildly as she tried to hold it back with one hand, the other gripping an obnoxious microphone. Her head sliced to the side and she started talking faster. “I’m not sure how long I can hold my position here but a group of people just ran out of the rubble there and, pan left!” she snapped at the camera man. The camera spun to the left. And there Darcy was. She was pointing off in the distance and ushering people along. Someone was leaning against her heavily and her shoes were tossed over her shoulders like she hadn’t had enough time to actually get them on. The state of her feet proved that to be true. Her head whipped up and she spotted the camera. He could see the expletive on her lips as she tucked her SHIELD badge into her skirt.

A moment later her eyes went wide and she screamed. Her voice couldn’t be heard over the roar that shook the camera’s lens. It looked like she was screaming something but, even with his eyes trained for lip reading, he couldn’t figure it out. She helped the man over onto someone else’s shoulders and he could see she shouted _‘'Go!"_ before she ran towards the camera. She tried to get one shoe on, bouncing as she ran. “Are you _CRAZY?_ ” she shouted at the anchor woman and shoved at her. “Get out of here!” she gritted out as she shoved the other shoe on. The news feed cut out a moment later. Clint couldn’t help but grin as he shook his head. Darcy certainly was an interesting girl. Woman.

It was another few weeks before he actually got a chance to talk to her again. She was face planted into her desk, piles of papers and folders stacked around her like a paper city was forming around her and electing her mayor. Her short hair was splayed over her arms which were pillowing her head on the small space that was free. He stood there for a moment then set the cup of coffee in his hands down onto one of the stacks of paper. Her voice came quick and sharp. “You better not have put that on the latest status reports from the Manhattan rebuild or _I swear to Thor I will tase you in the balls._ ” She didn’t even seem to need to look up to know someone was there.

“You know, usually people say _thank you._ ” He grunted and her head whipped up. She looked surprised and disheveled and confused all at once, managing to pull off all three looks surprisingly well. Her mouth flopped open like a fish for a moment before she snapped her mouth shut and snatched the cup up. She peeled the lid back and smelled the sweet scent on Caramel. She grinned and sipped it appreciatively. Her eyes never left his face, even as her head dipped to suck the foam off the top of the drink. She pulled away and tilted her head.

“I thought you’d be off to Kazakhstan or some other unknown country to save the day or something.” She finally commented, pointing at him with one finger as she kept a tight hold on the poor cup. Clint snorted.

“You have your paper work and I have mine.” She groaned and dropped her head forward.

“No more paperwork.” She moaned and gave a fake shudder. Clint quirked a half smile at it. He opened his mouth to say something else but there was a loud bang noise to the left and a rush of hot air. Darcy let out a sharp sigh and got up. “Scuse me.” She said primly and grabbed a fire extinguisher from under her desk. It just goes to show how often this happened that she had one under there in the first place.

The next time they meet is actually completely on accident. Clint stumbles into an argument between her and someone else. He can’t actually see who she’s yelling at at first, some poor scientist. “-don’t care _what_ you turn into!” He heard her shout and smack her hand against the wall, flattening her palm against the white expanse. “You still need to eat and sleep like a normal human being!” Clint rounded the corner to see which poor soul had ended up on the bad end of a Darcy Rant and froze. He knew Darcy had some balls but he never thought she was _crazy_ before now.

Doctor Banner pushed his glasses up his nose and Darcy opened her mouth to yell at him some more. Clint grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her back. She yelped as he dragged her around the corner, leaving a stunned looking Doctor Banner behind. He continued to pull her down the hall until she snapped out of it enough to jerk herself violently free. “What do you think you’re doing?!” she snapped and crossed her arms under her chest. She stood with her hip cocked to one side and her mouth in a hard line. The stitches had been removed by then, of course, but there was a white scar there now.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. _Do you know who that is?_ ” the words were sharper than he intended. He found himself wondering why he was even bothering. It’s not like he was her father or anything. She narrowed her eyes through her brand new pair of glasses, the pair she’d gotten to replace the ones lost in the battle. “You were just yelling at the _Hulk_.”

“I am _perfectly aware_ of whom I was talking to and I’m also perfectly aware of the fact that _Doctor Banner_ has not slept in three days!” She hissed out the Doctors name to put emphasis on the fact that he was a human being, not just a rage-y green guy with a penchant for throwing cars and catching falling genius billionaire playboy philanthropists. She managed to convey anger and hurt in one look. “You are not my baby sitter. You aren’t even really my friend. I can handle myself.” She clipped out then stormed away. No. She didn’t _storm_ so much as walk with a purpose only women knew how to do. Clint ran a hand down his face and sighed as he turned to walk away, thinking of the turn of events.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter set from more of Darcy's view than an open view. I wanted to thank you all for putting up with this stories one year fricken hiatus. Thanks.

Darcy had felt eyes on her ever since the mugging. She’d been released a few days after her apparent stabbing and had tried to get right back into the swing of things. Jane wasn’t having any of it. The thing about Jane was that she was dedicated, if not a little flaky, and didn’t really pay too much attention to important things such as eating or sleeping. Or showering. What she did care about was Darcy. Jane refused to allow Darcy to do anything until she could move across the room without wincing in pain. For once the roles were reversed. Jane would run between getting Darcy some food or something to read while trying not to toy with the machine in the corner of the room that kept beeping at odd intervals. She did a pretty good job until it started smoking and she was off Doctor Fostering in the corner for a few hours. It was actually a relief for Darcy to get some peace and quiet without Jane tutting over her. She wondered idly if this is what she felt whenever Darcy was trying to force food into her.

The feeling of eyes on her lasted up until they got their new Agent. That was the day she found the box. It was wrapped sort of, if brown paper and twine could be considered wrapped, and had Darcy’s name written across the front of it. Jane was still in bed after a long day’s work so Darcy opened it alone. It was a hoodie to replace the one that had been destroyed during her mugging. She smiled and pulled it up to her face. It had that faint scent on it. She’d smelled it once before. She smirked and yanked it on over her shirt.

The new Agent was nice. Tall and kind of cute. She spent a lot of her time flirting with him for the remaining few weeks. Then her internship was up. She smiled through her goodbye with Jane and Doctor Selvig and even kissed her new Agent friend on the cheek. She smirked at the red swak mark on his cheek. The look on his face was worth it. She was accompanied back to Culver by two agents, one in the car with her and one trailing behind in another car. She felt important. Darcy was the type of person who never actually felt important. She only felt as important as the people around her. When she’d been stabbed it kind of confirmed it. She would have died if Jane hadn’t pitched a big enough fit. She was supposed to be watched and she’d been disregarded to the point of almost death.

She didn’t actually hold it too personally. Not really. Not in the end anyways. She graduated from Culver near the top of her class. The look on her Professors face when she handed in the report on her internship was pretty entertaining. Most of the paper had been blacked out and the two SHIELD agent’s on either side of her confirmed it was confidential work and not the ploy of a lazy student.  Her life went on like normal.  As normal as it could after everything. It was hard to get back into the College mindset after meeting a Norse God and almost getting Barbequed by some metal destroyer thing. She’d been doing pretty well after everything had happened but once she was away from Jane and back in her crappy Dorm room everything seemed to crush her. Sometimes she felt almost normal and other times she couldn’t help but cry. She’d never really been a crier before but sometimes things just kind of welled up and poured over and the only thing she could do was cry.

She walked across the stage and waved and smiled and everything was okay. She graduated. She’d graduated with nobody to celebrate with her once she was finally off that stage and it burned. She did the only thing she could think to do. She called Jane to tell her the good news but Jane sounded just as bad as she did. Jane sounded really bad. “I’m coming to New Mexico to see how you are. You sound terrible.” There was a pregnant pause from Jane and a sigh.

“I didn’t want to tell you but I’m not exactly in Puente Antiguo anymore. I was moved. To New York.”

“You were moved? Like… not by choice? And do you have a new intern?” she asked, trying to keep the agitation out of her voice.

“Yes. No. Kind of! About a new intern… I tried a few but none of them were… you.” She sighed and Darcy shook her head.

“When, exactly, was the last time you took a shower or got some sleep?” the silence said it all. “Dammit, Jane. Go to bed. I’ll be there in a few days. Just give me your address.” She wasn’t taking no for an answer. She needed to see Jane just as much as Jane needed her. Jane had always respected Darcy’s tenacity though.

Darcy stood in front of the tall building with an odd expression on her face caught between amusement and confusion. Jane had never had the best funding ever and she’d never stricken Darcy as the “Secretly a Billionaire” type. Darcy just gave a half shrug and stepped inside. She moved over to the main desk and smiled. “Hola, I’m looking for my friend Jane Foster. Said she lived here.” She had never had security called on her before but she’d recognize an Agent when they came up to her in their Men in Black uniforms asking her to follow them. She let out an annoyed puff of air and wondered what _exactly_ Jane had gotten her into.

As it turned out Jane’s actual location was _supposed_ to be a secret, meaning Darcy should _not_ have been given the address. They both had to deal with a lecture on security protocol before Darcy was actually aloud to even _SEE_ her. She tossed her arms around Jane’s neck as she came into view. The tiny astrophysicist had gotten even tinier since Darcy had last seen her. Darcy spent the next few days basically _force_ _feeding_ her and making sure she got _at least_ eight hours of sleep a day. She didn’t even allow her into the lab at all. The first time Darcy got to see the new lab was four days after she’d arrived in New York.

She was not really surprised at what she found. Her old machines where there, of course. The devices Darcy had constantly been forced to Duct Tape back together or squirt WD40 into until most of the insides where covered in a layer of black gunk. There were also new machines, a thick plastic wall with marker written over most of it, a high tech cappuccino machine, and some sort of device that worked as a fridge _and_ an oven. It was all pretty impressive. “So, have we made any breakthroughs?” because Thor was her friend too and everything.

“I’m getting closer. So close. I can almost taste it!” Jane said with a sort of glee on her face. She was wearing her favorite pair of jeans, Darcy knew because she’d helped pick them out for her, but they were too loose on her. Darcy had remembered she’d gotten the size four jeans at a thrift shop where they had spent the better half of the day buying old PVC piping and used/broken computers. Darcy had found the jeans and bought them without telling Jane then shoved them into Jane’s hands at home. She’d loved them. They were a size _four_ and they were _falling off_ of Jane’s hips.

“‘Scuse me Jane.” She held up one finger. “I’ll be right back.” She said as she sucked in a breath and practically stormed out of the lab. Jane waved her off as a machine made an odd noise, already distracted.

The place was vast but held in a somewhat civilian area. It’s why Darcy had been allowed in in the first place. Everything above her clearance level, which was basically lower than the lowest level, was held in rooms much further into the complex. She’d been escorted with Jane to the labs and, the moment she left without waiting for an escort, she was being yelled at. She spun on the Suit and crossed her arms under her chest. “Coulson. Now.” She demanded and tapped her foot. Waiting. The agent actually looked pretty surprised by her demand.

“I can’t get you Agent Coulson.” He said slowly. She rose a brow and cocked her hip.

“Tell him Taser Girl is looking for him.” She ground out. “Or IPod Girl. He’ll come. _Trust me._ ” And he did. He was not too pleased looking as he did.

“Miss. Lewis. I have a lot of work to do-”

“Jane is _your_ responsibility.” She began, cutting him off. A small group of people were forming on the fringes. Agents to Secretaries were watching as the twenty something young woman starred down Agent Cooler-Than-You Coulson. Coulson was a Legend and he was taking this all fairly well. “I left Jane and I was _assured_ she would be perfectly safe while with you guys.”

“Doctor Foster is in excellent-“

“She weighs ninety pounds!” Darcy snapped back, never letting him finish. “When _I_ was her assistant she was fed and she slept regularly. She looks like a train wreck. If she drops dead of starvation who will finish your precious research?” she growled. “Why doesn’t she have an assistant?”

“Her work is exemplary she doesn’t need-“

“She need’s someone to make sure she is in good health!”  They went back and forth like that for a while before he led her into a meeting room to further discuss the issue.

“All right Miss. Lewis. I have to say I agree with you on some of those aspects. Would you like to come on permanently as Doctor Fosters assistant?” Darcy sucked in a breath.

“I am a graduate of _Culver University_. I graduated summa cum laude from one of the best universities out there. I have a degree in Political Science. I am not going to be Doctor Foster’s assistant forever. I will work under her until you find a better suited person. Or until _I_ do. My point is if you are offering me a job it had better suit me better.” And thus started Darcy’s illustrious career as an Agent of SHIELD.

Sort of. There were a lot of mishaps along the way. They found a new assistant after a few weeks and she was officially offered the job. When Jane asked her what she would be doing she explained it as “Basically I keep people in line and do a shit ton of legal research.” which was kind of accurate anyways. She had to go through some basic training. How to shoot a gun and throw a punch. Simple things that she’d picked up fairly easily. Not as easily as others, of course. She’d slipped into her position like she was meant for it, actually finding out she liked the job. Usually it took a while to get her level of clearance. Considering she came into the program already knowing more than what most of the Junior Agents knew she was quickly bumped up to level 2. With higher clearance levels came more paperwork and more punishments if she revealed anything so, she guessed, they bumped her up to protect themselves more.

Things were going pretty good for about four months. She was getting to happy. People actually depended on her in some aspect. She felt cared for. Needed. And then they sent Jane away. “It’s just for a few weeks. I’m going to be fine. I’ll have three agents with me. It will be a vacation. A _vacation,_ Darcy.” She seemed excited and far too happy for Darcy to tell her she had a feeling something was wrong. First they had lost connection with one of their underground bases then a team had been assembled and Fury himself was on edge. Not that she’d met him or anything. She knew something was wrong. She knew they were sending her away to protect her or something. “Anyways, they said you should come with.” That actually surprised her.

“No. I think I should stay behind and make sure your assistant doesn’t set anything on fire. Be safe Jane.” She reached forward and hugged her tightly. Jane seemed a little surprised but hugged her back anyways. She was gone by the end of the night.

Darcy didn’t have the right clearance. They wouldn’t tell her what was going on. Darcy sighed and called Coulson. She’d gotten to be pretty close to him in the last few months. As close as someone like her could get to someone like him anyways. His phone seemed to be off though so she left a message. “Hey, I need to know what the damage is. Do I need to go find Jane? Coulson. Please. Just call me okay? See ya later.” She hung up and went back to her apartment for the night.

She got the call way too early for her to be able to function properly. She flipped the phone open and grumbled into it angrily until she heard Coulson’s voice. “Darcy.” He sounded exasperated. She frowned and sat up.

“Where have you been? And seriously? It’s like, six in the morning. What’s going on and why on earth did you feel the need to call at-“

“Darcy listen to me.” He snapped. She closed her mouth with an audible snap.  “I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on right now because your clearance level isn’t-“

“Save me the speech. I’m a lowly level two. I get it-“

“Darcy!” he ground out and she bit her lip to keep her mouth shut. “I know Jane was relocated but, just in case, I want you to go to work strapped tomorrow.”

“But I hate that thing.” She whined. “No, okay. I will.” She nodded and sighed. “Are you safe? Because you need to be safe.”

“Darcy…” he let out a low sigh. “I’m as safe as I ever am. Take care of yourself-” there was a loud noise from the other end and she could hear him pull the phone away from his mouth. Some muffled voices could be heard before he spoke again. “I have to go.”

“All right. See you soon.” She called and the line went dead. A feeling of dread filled her but she went back to sleep. There were still hours before she had to get to work.  Her alarm woke her up ten minutes before eight. Darcy yawned loudly and stretched out before finally getting up. She took a quick shower then pulled on a white shirt and vest combo. She hooked her I.D. card to the bottom of her shirt to get it out of the way as she yanked on a skirt. She wasn’t really a fan of her ‘Professional’ wear but she did appreciate the grace of how she looked in it. She sucked in a breath and looked at the menacing brown leather object she’d carelessly tossed over a chair in the corner. She’d never been a fan of guns. She’d known how to shoot before her training with SHIELD, a fact that actually surprised her CO. She hooked the holster on then rotated her shoulders. Next she retrieved her guns. She kept them in separate places around the apartment; the clips separate from the weapons and held in a box in her drawer next to her bed.

She headed towards her drawer to find some socks when she heard it, a loud crashing sort of noise. A moment later the glass in the window shattered. She didn’t have any time to grab socks before yanking on her Ramones hoodie to hide her guns and tossing her shoes over her shoulders. She had kept the laces tied together so she wouldn’t lose one shoe. She had a habit of kicking them off and losing one so she tied them together after she takes them off to avoid losing her favorite pair of shoes. She was out her door in an instant, the hall of her apartment building flooded with the remaining occupants. Mostly everyone in her building worked early in the morning so there were not that many people left over. The building shook violently and Darcy winced. “Come on everyone, outside! Hurry! We can head to the nearest emergency shelter!” her voice was commanding and firm enough that the small group followed after her.

The building was an older one, probably just on this side of condemned. Most of the buildings were and yet everything was way too expensive. SHIELD took care of their Agents so she knew she would never be evicted. She hadn’t foreseen this though, whatever it was. The building was shaking so bad she thought it would come down around them… which was exactly what it was doing. She tried to make sure everyone was out before she headed towards the door. Darcy reached out to help an older tenant still making his way outside when some creature on a flying _thing_ flew straight through the apartment to her left to the opposite apartment and out, crashing into the brick building to the left in a rather nasty spray of green blood. Her breathing hitched in her chest as rubble from the wall pelted both her and the man. Her arms had come up in an attempt to cover their faces but the damage was done.

Supporting most of his weight she half dragged him outside. Trying not to actually think about what was happening Darcy tried to direct them in the right direction when she noticed the reporter. Everything got a little fuzzy after that. She remembers bits and pieces of everything but it didn’t come together properly in her head and it wouldn’t for weeks afterwards. They were being invaded. Darcy focused on getting people out of the street while she made her way to SHIELD. She would get proper orders there. She had to. Darcy remembered rounding a corner at one point with her gun raised, arm shaking, and barely avoided getting her head blasted off by the alien things weapon. She didn’t even notice a good chunk of her hair falling away. That’s how close she’d come to dying. She fired her gun until it was empty but that did not stop her from pulling the trigger in panic. Someone slammed into her and the gun was ripped from her hand in the crowd that came from an old movie theater and she was on the move again.

There wasn’t anything for her to do right away. By the time she’d made it to her building, offices on top and a SHIELD facility below, everything was over. She was sent to get checked out in the med bay as soon as someone realized she was at least somewhat injured. They were not taking any chances with their Agents. They needed everyone in tip top shape for what was to come next. It was almost as soon as she got down there that someone was shining a light in her eyes and asking her tedious but quick questions. She was plopped down in a chair pretty quickly though and told to wait to get stitched up. Darcy realized for the first time that she was bleeding. She noticed an ache across her cheek so familiar to her she wouldn’t need to look in the mirror to know it was going to bruise and whenever she bit her lip in her nervousness a shot of pain went through her. Her hand came up and she realized her lip was split. She let out a sighed and rolled her shoulders to relieve some tension.

Her eyes scanned the room and she sighed before getting to her feet. Her ankle was throbbing but she couldn’t feel the pain. She figured it was shock. “Look, there are too many people in this room. You can’t treat people if you’re afraid of falling over someone.” She lectured. The Med Agent looked at her like she was crazy and she crossed her arms. “Look, you have a lot to worry about right now. How bout _I_ delegate and _you_ just treat these people?” she got the go ahead after that and started organizing. She gathered information on where the injured were being taken and started making calculations in her head. She turned and sighed. “No, no! Too many beds in the room!” she snapped at someone then paused as _he_ came in. Clint. She grinned and moved over to him. “Robin Hood!”

He didn’t respond right away. He watched her for a moment and she wondered what exactly he saw. Did he see the girl that was in _way_ over her head in an Agency that she was sure would kill her one day or did he see a woman in a disaster situation pulling herself together and taking a stand? His brows furrowed and he spoke. “What are you doing here, Lewis?” That wasn’t exactly what she’d been expecting to come out of his mouth. She didn’t know if she should feel embarrassed or just plain angry. She crossed her arms at him and narrowed her eyes.

“I work here?” she thought about that for a second and amended her statement. “Okay not _here_ here. I mean I work here.” She gestured to explain what she meant. She didn’t work in the medical area but in the building itself. “What, did you think I’d be Jane’s lackey forever? I graduated a few months ago.” Her shoulders slumped. He probably thought she was just some idiot intern that would never amount to anything. Great. Someone pushed past her and she wanted to scream at them. “You! There are too many people in here! Who said you could bring more here? Third floor!” she demanded as she contemplated moving over to them to delegate some more.

“Whose blood is that?” The question startled her back into paying attention to Clint. Her head snapped down and she let out a sting of swears that would put a sailor to shame. She started stripping the blood covered clothes off as quickly as possible. She couldn’t stand the thought of someone else’s blood on her. On her hands or her clothes or anything else.

“Well, it’s clearly not my own.” She quipped and tossed her vest in a nearby trash can. “I had a rough commute.” She tried to joke as she smiled. She spotted someone behind her trying to bring in some more injured and sighed “Sorry Clint, I gotta go!” she shouted over her shoulder and ran off to do her job.

She didn’t see Clint for the rest of the day, hell for the rest of the week. She knew he had a lot to do so it really didn’t bother her and it wasn’t like she didn’t have her own things to deal with. She didn’t really expect him to drop everything he was doing to talk to her and she certainly wasn’t hurt that he didn’t. She ended up cutting her hair instead of trying to do damage control on the slice. She’d also ended up getting her lip stitched up. She wasn’t aware it was that bad at the time but the medical officer assured her the scar would be small. Then he had to talk her down from almost tears when she realized she have a scar on her face. She’d always managed to avoid scarring her face before. She felt eyes on her most of the week though, despite not actually seeing anyone watching her.

She was coping pretty well with the disaster as best she could. She organized and dealt with some PR work as well as worked with other agents to file reports.  Darcy was the go to person for paperwork in the office for reasons she’d never understand. Perhaps it was because she was the newbie in the group or because she was actually pretty good at filing paperwork. She had mountains of the stuff on her desk, hear head dropped down on top of it. It had been a few days since she’d slept. Every time she closed her eyes she thought of Coulson. She hadn’t been told what happened but she knew enough to know that her friend would never be coming back. She was on the verge of sleep when she felt a very small depression on top of her paperwork.

“You better not have put that on the latest status reports from the Manhattan rebuild or I swear to Thor I will tase you in the balls.” Her voice was filled with annoyance as she snapped quickly at whomever it was bothering her. She expected it was someone else dropping more paperwork off for her to fill out.

“You know, usually people say thank you.” Before Darcy even realized what was happening she had the coffee pressed between her hands, inhaling the scent like it was her last connection to humanity and she wanted it to last. She watched him even as she sipped the foam off the latte, trying to figure out exactly what he was doing here.

“I thought you’d be off to Kazakhstan or some other unknown country to save the day or something.” She admitted as she pointed a finger at him. She had her nails painted purple, a treat she’d aloud herself after the battle. That and she figured she could spend thirty dollars on nails if it helped the lady out. She seemed like she’d needed it.

“You have your paper work and I have mine.” Darcy tried and failed not to groan audibly at that. She couldn’t even imagine the paperwork he had to fill out. Then again she was pretty much doing everyone else’s paper work anyways so maybe she _could_ imagine it. She looked down at her own paperwork then up at him again, letting out a fake shudder.

“No more paperwork.” She tried not to smile as a little half grin quirked the corner of his lips up but she couldn’t hold back the little grin that played across her own lips. He opened his mouth to talk when she heard it. The familiar bang and rush of heat. These past few weeks had been… hectic to say the least. “Scuse me.” Darcy grabbed the fire extinguisher and off she went. By the time she got back he was already gone, probably off to do his own paperwork. She could feel for him there.

The whole week went by in a sleep deprived caffeine addled haze. Darcy herself was getting little sleep so it was getting harder and harder to concentrate as she went about her business. That didn’t mean that she didn’t notice when other people were getting ragged and run down. Darcy had never actually met Doctor Banner before that day but she did recognize him and she had been seeing him around headquarters. She cornered him in the hall, her arms crossing over her chest. “You are aware that it’s been about three days since you’ve changed your clothes right? You haven’t slept at all have you?” she asked him, an annoyed expression on her face.

Doctor Banner looked both amused and concerned at Darcy’s questioning. “Miss. Lewis… you are aware that I turn into the _Hulk_ right?” he asked her skeptically. He assumed she didn’t know considering she was currently shouting at him. If she knew she’d just avoid him like everyone else. He assumed anyways.               

“I don’t care  _what_  you turn into! You still need to eat and sleep like a normal human being!” she snapped, slapping her hand against the wall to keep him from retreating into his lab again. Or whatever it was he’d been doing for the past few days. The Doctor glanced at her then pushed his glasses back up his nose, ready to comment when she opened her mouth to cut him off. She felt a rough hand on her arm yank her around and pull her away, her heart suddenly pounding violently in her chest. She was about ready to beat her attacker all to hell when she caught sight of who it actually was. Then she was pissed for a completely different reason. She jerked herself out of his grip, ignoring the fact that she’d definitely bruise in the morning, and shouted “What do you think you’re doing?!” as loud as she could muster.

“I was going to ask you the same thing.  _Do you know who that is?_ ” Darcy felt rage burn through her. Absolute an intense rage. Who the hell was he to think he had any right whatsoever to tell her what she could or could not do. “You were just yelling at the  _Hulk_.”

“I am  _perfectly aware_  of whom I was talking to and I’m also perfectly aware of the fact that  _Doctor Banner_ has not slept in three days!” she wanted to bang it into his head that the good Doctor was a human being. Not some experiment, not some monster, not some beast. Human. From what she’d observed over the last couple of days most people didn’t do that. “You are not my baby sitter. You aren’t even really my friend. I can handle myself.” She snapped out before storming away from him. She had to admit, it was a pretty fantastic exit.

She made sure to hunt down Doctor Banner and prod him into bed before she finished up the nights assignments and shuffled off to the SHIELD safe house she was in. She’d have to deal with Jane when she came back from Tromsø in a few days and Darcy needed rest too. She couldn’t just let herself completely slip into a state of dishevelment too. It was like the whole world was crumbling around them and she needed to stay upright. Needed to keep trucking. It was what she always did.


	3. Chapter 3

When Darcy woke up it was to an armful of pissed off Astrophysicist. She couldn’t really complain because she’d gotten more sleep than usual and she’d missed her friend. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been keeping Jane in Tromsø for the last few weeks until everything had fully settled down. She also had a feeling they’d been keeping her away so she wouldn’t go postal on certain members of the Avengers (and whoa, that was a trip all in its own) for not teaching Thor what a phone was and that he could actually fricken call her before he vanished with Loki back to Asgard (and again, holy shit).

Darcy squeezed Jane closer until she was fully awake and actually able to process what she was saying. Darcy was a morning person. She was one of the grumpiest morning people out there but she was usually up and ready pretty early in the am. Jane did know better than to just spring right into important information at, she glanced at the clock and let out a low strung out groan, five thirty in the morning. “Jane, I’m glad your back but maybe getting up and letting me put pants on should take priority right now?” Jane nodded and helped haul Darcy out of bed before heading to the mini kitchen the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house was equipped with to make them both a cup of sludgy coffee.

Not many of Darcy’s clothing had actually survived the attack. She reverted back to her thrift shop finds and the few skirt suits she had left to get her through the first few weeks after the attack and she was slowly adding supplemental clothing into her wardrobe, things she picked up here and there. In this case she pulled on a pair of leggings and a comfortable sweaterdress. It wasn’t work attire but they could deal with it in this case if she even went in today. She ran her fingers through her hair a few times, pushed her glasses on, then moved to meet Jane. “I brought you creamers because I know how shit S.H.I.E.L.D. coffee is.”

“Bless you, my beautiful genius.” Darcy responded, taking the hazelnut creamer packets from Jane and dumping them into the coffee. Jane really was a woman after her own heart, she thought absently as she sipped. “You’re back early.” she commented as she eyed Jane over. Jane was back to pre-destroyer weight and her size fours were fitting again. She smiled into her coffee at that, glad that the intern she’d hired for Jane was working out. She’d have to remember that kids name, it was probably Aaron or Ian. Something like that.

“Turns out when you’re loud and angry it gets wheels moving.” Jane tipped her glass with a sly smile on her lips. “That and I threatened to pull my research and break contract if they didn’t get me back to my OG Intern in the next twenty four hours.” Darcy was a little proud, she couldn’t lie. Jane was a force to be reckoned with when she was in a mood. “He was here, Darcy, and they sent me away.”

“I know.” she murmured and set her cup down gently before wrapping Jane into a tight hug. “You know what I say about that?” she asked, holding Jane close. “I say fuck him. You are a badass scientist who is better than pining over some boy, even if you could probably cook an egg on those abs of his.” She held Jane out at arms length, looking her over. “You look like I’m buying you breakfast.” she said firmly, leaving no room for argument, and grabbed a coat. “Let me pull some shoes on and we can go to Henry’s Diner.” Jane certainly wasn’t protesting free breakfast. Darcy pulled on a pair of ankle boots and gestured for Jane to follow her out.

Henry’s Diner was a small place that had managed to survive the horror that had devastated Manhattan only a few months ago. Henry had started a food drive from the kitchen after the attack which quickly escalated to a full out donation center. After a few weeks of being completely overrun by donations and people they moved to a new location to handle that and Henry still ran the restaurant whenever possible. Henry was there this morning, Diner opening bright and early at six every day.

Henry came over to take their order, Darcy could see the waitress hunched over in the kitchen and she wanted to say something but Henry was already talking. “And what can I get you today, Sugar.”

“I’d like an omelette and some bacon as a side, ma’am.” Darcy ordered right away.

“Biscuits and gravy?” Jane asked, causing Henry to nod.

“I gotcha dear.” and she was gone.

“Henrietta is quite possibly my idol.” Darcy sighed out and took a long sip of her orange juice. “How did your ‘vacation’ go? Did you get a lot of sciencing done?”

“You could say that.” Jane nodded. “Not sure any of it was worth it though. I missed Thor and-”

“What did I say about pining?” she grumbled, crossing her arms under her chest, she just looked ridiculous when she crossed over her chest.

“I’m not pining! I can learn so much from him!” Jane insisted. She had a point, Darcy acknowledged, and nodded slightly in understanding.

“Jane, dear, you’re kind of pining. Science pining. We should do something to get your mind off of it.” she took another sip as Henry dropped their plates off, she was efficient in that kitchen, that’s for sure. “There’s got to be some kind of project you want to work on.”

“Well… there’s something I want to do in London and I know Ian is missing home-”

“Hah! I knew it was Ian!” Darcy cheered then covered her mouth. “Sorry, go on.”

“I was saying London would be good but I have a lot to do before actually heading out there. A few months before I can actually get all my shit together.” she admitted. Darcy nodded and popped a piece of Bacon into her mouth.

“Okay. You know, you should take Doctor Selvig with you. He’s been a little out of it since everything happened. Getting him sciencing may be the best thing you can do for him at this point.” he’d been deteriorating since everything went down and it was starting to worry Darcy. She didn’t see him very much but the more she did the more he seemed to lose in between the cracks in time.

“Darcy… I want you to come too.” Jane was looking at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world that she’d want her to come with too. “We all need this. You’ve lost weight and the bags under your eyes look like they’ve been over packed.” Darcy winced but she knew Jane was right and taking care of each other was what they did best.

“This is months away. I don’t even know if I’ll have the time off and we still have a few things left to do with the city-”

“Come as my S.H.I.E.L.D. assigned assistant. If I request you they can’t say no. And it won’t be for too long.” she could see the look in Jane’s eyes and knew she didn’t have much of a choice here. They were both on edge. She wasn’t a trained field agent and didn’t really want to go through that training regime, but she could bypass that if she didn’t go as a field agent. And it would only be for a few months as far as Darcy knew. She loved her job but she loved Jane too and she knew she needed a ‘break’ more or less. She needed her best friend.

“Okay Jane. I’ll come.”

A few months to gather herself ended up being six months. Darcy wasn’t sure exactly what Jane was doing for those six months, she didn’t ask too many questions about the research or the prep to move to London. She wasn’t sure what she did to get Darcy assigned to her either but that was Jane, genius and wily as heck. She knew how to get what she wanted. Darcy went undercover. Her ‘cover’ being Jane’s unpaid intern who needed the help after college. It wasn’t too far from the truth since she didn’t have employment records currently. Working for shady pseudo-militaristic government agencies had a few weird perks. They figured it would look better if she was just the intern on this one, and not an Agent. She couldn’t argue with their logic and she couldn’t _wait_ to see London.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the year long hiatus... again. I had to rework the story a bit to make it Thor 2 and Winter Soldier compliant (and it will be, trust me). So I hope you enjoy this! I promise not to abandon it. Life just kind of bitch smacked me.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you didn't notice I have no idea what I'm doing! Thanks for reading!


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